On arrival in Shanghai, your private guide meets you at the airport and transfers you to your hotel. This evening, a welcome dinner introduces you to Shanghai’s extraordinary cuisine — perhaps the city’s finest Shanghainese restaurant, or a private room overlooking the Bund.

A full day in Shanghai. Visit the Yu Garden — a perfectly preserved Ming Dynasty garden in the heart of the Old City — then the Shanghai Museum, home to one of China’s greatest collections of bronzes, ceramics and paintings. Walk the French Concession’s tree-lined boulevards and Art Deco architecture. Stroll the Bund at dusk as Pudong’s towers ignite across the Huangpu. Optional evening: night cruise on the Huangpu River.

Morning visit to Zhujiajiao — the water town forty minutes from Shanghai, where 1,700-year-old canal streets wind between whitewashed houses and stone bridges. Lunch before a late afternoon flight to Guilin. Arrive and transfer to your hotel. Dinner in Guilin.

Guilin’s city highlights: Fubo Hill — a limestone peak rising vertically from the Li River’s edge, with views over the entire karst landscape — and the iconic Elephant Trunk Hill, where the rock formation has drawn visitors for a thousand years. Visit a local tea plantation to understand the region’s Guilin Maojian tea. An afternoon walk along the twin lakes in the city centre, where the peaks reflect in still water.

The heart of the journey. A private boat carries you down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo — 83 kilometres of the landscape depicted on the 20-yuan note. Limestone peaks rise vertically from flat river plains, their reflections doubling in the mirror surface of the water. Lunch on board. Arrive in Yangshuo and explore West Street. Optional evening: The Impression of Liu Sanjie — Zhang Yimou’s extraordinary outdoor light show staged on the Li River itself, with the karst peaks as backdrop.

A free day in Yangshuo — one of China’s most beautiful small towns. Bicycle through the karst valley paths between villages, stopping at rice paddies and market stalls. Rock climbing on the karst peaks is available for the adventurous. Or simply sit by the river and watch China pass by. This is one of the most peaceful days in China.

Transfer to Guilin airport and fly to Xi’an. Afternoon arrival and transfer to your hotel. This evening: a walk along Xi’an’s ancient 14th-century city wall, followed by the Muslim Quarter — a labyrinth of narrow alleyways alive with street food, market stalls and the scent of cumin-spiced lamb. Dinner at one of the Quarter’s finest restaurants. Optional: Tang Dynasty Song and Dance Show.

The highlight of Xi’an: a private morning visit to the Terracotta Warriors before the public gates open. Your specialist archaeological guide will explain the significance of each of the three excavation pits — the battle formation, the command structure, the cavalry. Over 8,000 warriors, each face uniquely crafted by the artisans of Qin Shi Huang’s court. Lunch at the museum. Afternoon: optional visit to the factory where modern artisans create duplicates using the original techniques. Evening: Dumpling dinner banquet with Tang Dynasty performance.

Morning flight to Beijing. On arrival, transfer directly to the Summer Palace — the vast imperial retreat on Kunming Lake, built on the foundations of a garden that has existed for eight centuries. Enter through the East Gate; walk the covered Long Corridor, its beams painted with ten thousand scenes from Chinese history and mythology. Boat ride across the lake. Peking Duck dinner this evening at a restaurant that has served the dish since the Qing Dynasty.

Tian’anmen Square — 109 acres at the heart of China, with the Gate of Heavenly Peace and the portrait of Mao at one end, the mausoleum at the other. Then: the Forbidden City. 9,999 rooms across 72 hectares, home to 24 emperors across five and a half centuries. Your guide brings the court alive — the hierarchy, the ceremonies, the scandals, the extraordinary art. Lunch within the complex. Afternoon: the Lama Temple — the finest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet, filled with extraordinary sculptures. Optional evening: Chinese acrobatic show.

The Great Wall at Juyongguan — the ancient mountain pass guarding Beijing from the north, where the wall is steepest and most dramatic. Walk the wall to the upper towers for views across mountain ridges that have changed little in two thousand years. Lunch. Afternoon: the Sacred Way leading to the Ming Tombs — two kilometres of stone animals and generals guarding the approach to the mausoleums of thirteen Ming emperors. Photo stop at the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube from outside. Dinner at a traditional Beijing restaurant.

The Temple of Heaven — built in 1420, where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties came each winter solstice to pray for good harvests. Arrive early to watch locals practising tai chi and calligraphy in the cedar groves. Lunch. Afternoon: a rickshaw tour through the hutongs — the ancient alleyways between the Drum Tower and the lakes. Stop at a local family’s courtyard home for tea and a conversation about life in old Beijing. Farewell dinner.

Breakfast at your hotel. Your guide transfers you to Beijing Capital International Airport for your international departure flight. We hope this journey has given you something worth carrying for the rest of your life.